How to define CAAnimation in delegate and release controller?

Question

I saw How to define CAAnimation in the animationDidStop delegate? is an addition to it.

I cannot get this to work properly. I have an animation, and I would like to release a controller that was launched after the animation ended. Example: the controller moves from right → left, then frees itself.

Animation Definition:

NSValue *end = [NSValue valueWithCGPoint:CGPointMake(800, self.view.center.y)]; NSValue *start = [NSValue valueWithCGPoint:self.view.center]; CABasicAnimation *moveAnimation; moveAnimation = [CABasicAnimation animationWithKeyPath:@"position"]; moveAnimation.timingFunction = [CAMediaTimingFunction functionWithName:kCAMediaTimingFunctionEaseInEaseOut]; moveAnimation.duration = 0.45f; moveAnimation.fromValue = start; moveAnimation.toValue = end; // actually set the position [self.view.layer setPosition:[end CGPointValue]]; moveAnimation.delegate = self; moveAnimation.removedOnCompletion = NO; [self.view.layer addAnimation:moveAnimation forKey:MOVING_OUT]; 

Inside the delegate method:

 - (void) animationDidStop:(CAAnimation *)theAnimation finished:(BOOL)flag { CAAnimation *check = [self.view.layer animationForKey:MOVING_OUT]; if (theAnimation == check) { //[check release]; [self release]; } } 

If you leave this code as it is, my controller will not receive dealloc'd (due to holding the call by animation). If I run [check release] , I get a message sent to deallocated instance .

Does anyone know what happened? Is there any other way to identify CAAnimation in the animationDidStop delegate WITHOUT specifying removedOnCompletion = NO ?

EDIT: Forgot to mention. Without indicating that removedOnCompletion = NO , animationForKey: will return NULL. Therefore, I cannot identify the animation.

Thanks!

Answer 1

It's not clear that your problem is here, but it can help you find out that CAAnimation instances are universal KVO containers, so you can add custom information to them:

 [myAnimation setValue: @"check" forKey: @"name"]; 

Then you can check this:

 if ([[theAnimation valueForKey: @"name"] isEqual: @"check"]) // ... 

Does it help?

Answer 2

I think a possible reason is CAAnimation.delegate - a persistence property (very strange!).

Header file definition:

 /* The delegate of the animation. This object is retained for the * lifetime of the animation object. Defaults to nil. See below for the * supported delegate methods. */ @property(retain) id delegate; 

To enable self get release, the animation must be removed from the layer, for example:

 [self.view.layer removeAnimationForKey:@THE_ANIMATION_KEY];